Just the Facts:
At 3 minutes before downtime on November 14, something sinister took place in the 1DQ1-A keepstar. Jay Amazingness, one of the Imperium’s most illustrious FCs, off-lined the service modules of the primary Imperium staging citadel in Delve. By doing this, all market orders were cancelled, and all clones were destroyed. Jay had also emptied out the hand-out hangers and everything else that was within his power to take, causing as much chaos and (ahem) “Havoc” as possible.
Complete reports on total damages are not available just yet. But it is safe to say that with the cache dreads, fuel hangers, market order taxes and destroyed clones, the damages will be in the trillions of isk. The total may or may not ever actually be known, but unofficial sources are claiming this is the single most expensive single-click destruction of wealth in EVE history.
The Reactions:
As one can expect, the first place to broadcast this event was Reddit. Posters rapidly started putting up screen captures of the button push and memes. And credit where due, some of the memes were pretty good.
(Credit u/Garr_Dexx)
Napkin math speculation, if the average clone is 250mil (prolly a bit high), works out north of 12.5 trillion just in pods.
Asher very quickly posted to the goon forums once a rough assessment of the damage had been made. This, unsurprisingly, as also leaked to Reddit, so that the public can discuss what happened and what it will mean in the middle and long term. I reached out to him for direct comment, but he is understandably a little occupied at the moment.
(Credit u/Im-Cheating)
Asher’s hope that this was a hacking incident, while not impossible, so far seems unlikely. While nothing is on the record yet, those who are reporting are making it clear that “information in front of them” makes it a deliberate act. But to what end? Why take such a step. On his stream this morning, Mind1 shared a number of speculations on why someone might, but ended by saying, “he was so well known, I just don’t know, it seems crazy.”
Merkelchen, CEO of Karmafleet, made an official statement. (Paraphrased to me this morning)
We have been burned before by putting trust in people that were our friends and we will be burned again someday. We will continue to put ourselves out there either way. This is EVE.
Merkelchen 11/14
What Happens Next:
Plans are now in the works for KF to subsidize and help replace expensive pods for their members once the dust settles and estimates can be made – I and others have started to make donations to help with the effort. GSF leadership is also currently looking into how alliance members can see their implants replaced post-haste, so if you’re a member of the Imperium, you should keep your eyes peeled for updates relevant to you.
However, we know Merk is going to be bullish on the long-term fate of Karmafleet. To balance this outlook, I reached out to the most reliable, most well informed, the most balanced person I know. Fountain Frank.
“While today is a dark day for the Imperium, there is at least one silver lining. Thanks to Jay’s efforts today, I am pleased to report that Brisc Rubal has managed to avoid six majorly embarrassing killmails from pods that he was inevitably going to lose to a random gatecamp in Clown Ring. The morale hit to the Imperium this would have engendered was narrowly avoided.”
Fountain Frank 11/14
Thank you Jay for preventing that stain to Brisc’s killboard at least.
Speculation
Put simply, there’s a hell of a lot of it flying around. Did Jay do it to get his name in the next six-hour-long “history of EVE” documentary? Was he paid a large sum and, as Reddit said, Pandemic Horde is now G4J? Was it in reaction to, as some of the leaks suggest, the removal of Scopeh? (Please note that the thread has been killed several times now, so if thats a dead link, please blame r/eve…)
Who can say. Mind1 has been commenting on it all morning, and everyone has their own guesses. I personally would have liked to ask him why, or even had an interview with him. But unfortunately, in addition to leaving the Imperium in spectacular fashion, he also is reported to have dropped all his discords, and isn’t answering former friends in the Imperium.
Was Jay Robbed?
The biggest thing I would want to ask him about, likely, isn’t the one that most are already asking. Sure I want to know why. But more so, I want to know if he feels robbed by CCP for the clones that didn’t get destroyed? Asher’s claim, though not yet substantiated, is that the lion’s share (around 70% or so) of those 52,670 clones were in fact not destroyed due to the server downtime and database space-weather.
So much for the napkin math.
I am interested in his perspective if the attempt was enough or if those ~45k clones that didn’t get mulched will haunt him or tarnish his legacy. Jay, I would love to know.
Obviously, the 70% that wasn’t destroyed seems to be a major point of annoyance to the PH folks of Reddit. Several comments and claims there, and on the streams of others, are upset and want CCP to fix the glitch and remove the rest of those clones. To those people, Mind1 reminds them of their ghost titans from M2-XFE.
If the server’s behaviors which resulted in high value assets was allowed to stand, then it stands to reason the same thinking should be applied here. In other words, “What is good for the goose, is good for the gander.”
Closing
Another point that is being made isn’t about space drama. Instead, it is about messaging. By doing this on the day of a major expansion drop, Jay has completely overshadowed CCP’s messaging, especially on the community subReddit. Jay’s actions underscore how critically important the players are in creating the story of EVE.
To Jay, for or against, that was a huge event that is going to live on in the history of EVE Online. For or against his actions, we all should recognize that.
To CCP, I have said it many times in the nearly 10 years I’ve been writing for INN; “Please let the players be the story. Give us tools and settings then get out of our way.”
